Thoughts on School

After the long weekend at home and a very full day of free-play on Monday for the girls (they literally played together, happily and peacefully for at least 10 hours bouncing back and forth between the basement (and the little legos) and their room (and the dollhouse)), both girls expressed some dismay at going back to school at bedtime.  Merrill lamented that 'choice time' wasn't very long and they told her what to do anyway (and "what kind of a choice is that?!") and so school wasn't fun :(.  Millie also expressed not wanting to go to school and I tried to explain that she was lucky she got to go to school and that it was where she would learn to be a successful and productive adult.  She asked "why can't I just experience it on my own?"  Hmmm.  Her preschool Montessori teachers would be proud.

It was hard to refute either of their complaints -- Merrill's need for a little freedom and playtime is reasonable for a five-year-old experiencing all-day school for the first time, and she's right, choice time isn't much of a choice if the teacher chooses your activity for you ...  And Millie is such a hands-on, do-it-yourself, kind of gal that she probably would do really well in a home school type situation (though I'm not at all convinced I'm a home school kinda mom...).  I do really think Millie's teacher this year is a good fit for this (she maintains an excellent blog where she not only shows what they do in their class, but also gives very insightful and explicit reasons for WHY they do the things they do and how they support her well-thought out teaching philosophy).  I think part of the problem for Millie is that so far 1st grade has been a review of Kindergarten and she doesn't feel like she's learning anything new yet (whereas everything was new in Kindergarten right way) and she's a little bored, also, all of her best friends from last year are in a different class together.  (while I wish she had some of her friends with her, I'm glad she has her teacher and not theirs -- based only on what I've heard from the other girls).  I firmly believe the boredom factor will be changing very soon as her school is very dedicated to challenging children every step of the way.  So it will just take time.  It saddens me a bit to know they aren't loving school yet -- they like it okay, but aren't loving it.  Merrill isn't expressing the same kind of complete adoration for her teacher that Millie did last year and while I like her teacher I do have some concerns of my own and hope that it ends up being a good year.  We only have two weeks down so far and SO much ahead of us.  I have to believe they will both get their footing and really start enjoying themselves (and drop-offs with tears, like today's, will be long forgotten).  As a rational being, I know this.  As a sentimental mama, well, my heart hurts just a little bit for them today.